


Literature Club of the Dead (Natsuki version)

by CplCorgi



Series: Literature Club of the Dead [2]
Category: Doki Doki Literature Club! (Visual Novel)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Gen, Nakamaship, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2019-10-17 19:23:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17566493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CplCorgi/pseuds/CplCorgi
Summary: It's the day after the festival, and it seems all is well for the members of the Literature Club. That is, until the Zombie Apocalypse begins.The Literature Club has an idea of where they can go to be safe. The only trouble is that there's dozens of miles and thousands of zombies between them and there. But hey! It's just like a road trip with friends, right? Traveling countless miles, going on adventures in zombie-infested buildings together, sleeping with one eye open, wondering if you'll live to see dawn...There's four versions of this fic. The difference being which Doki MC wound up together with. I might have to abandon this feature if it turns out to be too labor intensive, though. I've also formatted the text in a way that's reminiscent of the way a visual novel would be formatted, so that's why everything seems to get its own line.





	1. Flashpoint

It’s the day after the festival.

I’m still a little bloated from trying out almost every food they had at the festival with Natsuki, but the thought of coming back to the Literature Club and seeing her again is enough to keep me going.

I pull myself out of bed, take a quick shower, shovel a granola bar down my throat and head out my front door. Already, I can see Sayori waiting for me.

“Good morning, MC~” Sayori says, smiling that innocent smile of hers as if she didn’t just call me ‘MC’.

“Oh come on, Sayori!” I say, beginning to walk towards the school. “I write just one less-than-stellar rap as my poem, and now even you won’t stop calling me MC!”

Despite my protests, Sayori just giggles. I swear, she’s enjoying this little joke just as much as the others. But when she speaks again, she says something I wasn’t ready for.

“Ehehe~ The other girls might be making fun of you, but do you know why I call you ‘MC’?” she asks.

“Because you’re in on the joke?” I say.

Sayori pouts. “Oh come on MC! Give me more credit than that!” And then she was right back to smiling. “I call you ‘MC’ because I’m sure that you could be an awesome rapper someday, if you just put your mind to it!”

“Heh… Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, Sayori.” I say. Of course, I’m not all that passionate about becoming a rapper, but I’m not about to shut Sayori down when she’s trying to be supportive.

We keep on walking, only making a little more small talk on the way before we reach the front gates of the school and part ways.

The school day passes, but through the doldrum and monotony, I can tell that something isn’t quite right. When I got to the lunchroom, the guy I usually wind up sitting next to… Daichi was his name, I think. He wasn’t acting like himself at all. Usually, he would talk up a storm with anyone else nearby and treat us to his endless reserve of puns. I don’t really know the guy, but he usually made me smile at least once a day.

But today? He barely responded to anything. All he did was groan a few times, clutch his head and glare at anyone who engaged him for too long. He wolfed down his lunch like a madman, though. As if he’d gone hungry so long that he’d forgotten what chewing felt like. Daichi isn’t the only one acting strange either. A solid half of the student body is worryingly unresponsive. I really hope none of the Literature Club has the bug.

The day carries on, even more dead than usual. History class comes, and I tune out right when the teacher starts to discuss the formation of the United Prefectures of Japamerica. Yes, yes. FDR and Hirohito had a political marriage and our great nation was formed. Just don’t make me think about the honeymoon.

While I’m tuned out, I begin to think of the literature club, of Natsuki, of what’s going on in my animes right now, and then it occurs to me. I haven’t heard any kind of government advisory about the bug going around. Nobody’s confirmed if it’s the flu, mad cow disease, a collective panic attack, or anything. I haven't even heard if the government was investigating or not. I ask around, and even the students who are lucid enough to talk are as clueless as I am. It’s like this illness just materialized this morning.

Hell… maybe I have it. Can’t tell if I’m sick or just so bored by the banality of my classes that I’m falling asleep. After what felt like a week of monotony and worrying about catching the bug, it’s finally time to go to the literature club. Thank God.

I walk up in that club, and the usual scene greets me. Natsuki’s off in the corner with her manga, Yuri’s at her desk with her horror novel, and Monika and Sayori are up front with their conversations.

I sit down next to Natsuki without a word. We’re both used to our little arrangement by now, so neither of us blink at the idea.

“So, what did I miss?” I ask, taking a peek over Natsuki’s shoulder.

“Nothing, I was just reading some stuff from further than we’ve made it” Natsuki said with a smile that I wasn’t expecting to see. She wasted no time correcting that. ”Y’know, since you took so long to get here and all.”

“Still not as long as that order of taiyaki yesterday.” I say. Partially to try and pull Natsuki away from criticising me, partially because I was proud of myself for coming up with that response so quickly.

“Oh my god, don’t even get me started on those idiots!” Natsuki says. I muse to myself about how Natsuki’s clearly gotten started on said idiots, but hold my tongue. “We were the only ones who had an order placed and it STILL took them twenty freaking minutes longer than it should have! And did you see the way that jerk taking our orders smirked at me?“

“Yeah, what the hell kind of cashier enjoys frustrated customers?” I add.

“I bet he just knew how long he was making someone wait for a crappy product. Seriously! There was like, no red bean paste in there at all!” Natsuki shouts.

“Ahaha, yeah. You tell em’!” Monika interjects. A gentle ribbing to let Natsuki know how loud she was getting.

”Nn!” Natsuki almost snaps back with something, but quickly deflates. “Freaking Monika…”

“It’s alright. She’s saying she’s on our side on this one, right?” I say, trying and failing to reassure Natsuki.

“That’s the thing. No she’s not!” Natsuki protests. “She’s… She’s…”

While Natsuki struggles to find the right words, I try and help her get unstuck.

“Being sarcastic?” I suggest.

“Worse. She’s doing the thing where someone will pretend to be on your side, but you hear their tone and see that… that stupid look on their face and you just KNOW they’re making fun of you.”

Now that Natsuki points it out, I know exactly what she’s talking about. I’ve certainly had some assholes pull that one on me in the past.

“Yeah… Worst part is that you can’t really call them out on it. Since on the surface they were on your side.” I say.

“Exactly! God. At least someone gets it. Gets me…” Natsuki trails off. And then the two of us go silent. We keep reading, but I can feel that Natsuki and I have just grown a little bit closer. We read on until Monika starts her catchphrase.

“Okay, everyo-”

**[SLAM]**

Someone throws the door to the classroom open, and everyone stops dead in their tracks when they hear the noise.

We all see a male student standing in the doorway, his posture limp. His glazed over, grey eyes stare into nothing. It looks like he tried to rip his collar off, but forgot what buttons were and just clawed it off with his fingernails. For a few heavy seconds, he just stands there, muttering gibberish to himself.

Monika is the first to break the silence. “Ahaha… Can we help you?” she says, glancing over to us with a highly uncomfortable smile.

Once I’ve gotten an eyeful of the intruder, my next instinct is to check on Natsuki and see how she’s taking things. The scowl on her face answers that question in short order.

“Just who the hell does he think he is, barging in like this!?” She says, glaring daggers at the offending student. When I see her make a move to approach him, I grab her by the shoulders and hold her back.

“Monika’s got this. Let her handle it.” I say.

“No. I’m giving this asshole a piece of my mind.” Natsuki says, trying to pull my hands off her shoulders. “Throwing our door open, gurgling at us, wasting what little time we have here...”

While Natsuki says all this, I notice the beginnings of tears at the corners of her eye. Knowing what I do about her, I can tell that this is much more than a simple interruption to her. Something far more upsetting.

“Right. You only get so much time to be in here…” I say.

Natsuki nods. I can feel the tension in her muscles fade away. “This son if a bitch, he's cutting into the one place I… He's interrupting my favorite part of the day.”

Monika keeps asking the student questions, such as “Did you leave something here?” and “Are you okay?”, but still, all he does is gargle and glare.

“Come on, say something you prick!” Natsuki growls, more to herself than the intruder. She’s staring down at the floor, now fully returned to a seated position. I want to remind her that Monika has this handled, but those words are starting to sound hollow even to me.

“Give Monika one more try before you jump in, okay?” I say, my volume low and my tone gentle. I also let go of her shoulders, as if to wordlessly express my confidence in her. Natsuki turns to me, her eyes are reddened, but I can see that usual self confidence returning to her gaze.

“Yeah… I’ll show everyone how to handle nosy pricks!” Natsuki says. I’d be impressed by how quickly Natsuki masked her upset if it weren’t so worrying.

What forced her to learn to hide her emotions so swiftly?

As this goes on, the strange student seems more and more agitated. His quiet mumbling turning into a throaty moan of anger. Kind of like someone trying to gargle while doing a death metal growl.

Natsuki stands up and gets about halfway through asking “What the hell is your problem?” before the student lunges at Monika. Whatever’s wrong with him, I just know in the pit of my stomach that he’s going to try and kill her.


	2. Improvsation, Escalation

The dull-eyed student has Monika pressed against the teacher’s desk. He’s taking these wide, uncoordinated swings at her. Still making those gut-churning, throaty noises that no human being in their right mind would make.

Once the shock wears off, I run over to try and pry the guy off of Monika. All the while I wonder just what the hell this guy wants. If he had a score to settle with Monika, he’d have said something. If he just wanted her body, that would be obvious by now. Whatever his motivation, he’s proving incredibly difficult to grapple. It’s like he doesn’t even realize I’m there.

“MC, get clear!” Natsuki shouts. I was about to ask why, but when I look towards her to do so I answer my own question.

Or rather, the folding chair that Natsuki’s bringing down on the guy’s head does.

Chair and skull make contact with a crunching _[THWACK]_ that makes my stomach turn. The student crumples to the floor, but despite taking a blow that would have knocked anyone cold and left many comatose, he just gets right back up.

The student seems to be having even more trouble keeping his head up after the blow to the base of his skull, but he still manages to glare at Natsuki. And he’s not letting up with that throaty growl either.

This prompts Yuri to stand up and pull a grisly looking knife out of her bag. “You’ll stop this _at once_ , Shiro. Lest you give me reason to finally-”

“Shiro’s” eyes snap towards Yuri, and in an instant he’s upon her. They struggle for a moment, Shiro’s wild, maddened brute force against Yuri’s graceful, nimble dodges and precise placement of knife wounds. 

She practically dances around Shiro, knicking him with wounds that each bleed much more than you’d expect. Put them all together, and I begin to wonder how Shiro is still standing after all of that blood loss.

And what the hell is driving him to fight so furiously, for that matter.

By the time Yuri finally goes to cut Shiro’s throat, his blood has hit the classroom floor in amounts I fear might never be fully cleansed. Even still, Shiro throws punches for longer than he has any right to before finally collapsing.

The air hangs heavy for a moment, the four of us staring in slack-jawed disbelief as Yuri calmly wipes the blood from her knife and places it back in her bag. Almost as if she didn’t process what she’d just done.

Doing her best not to contemplate Shiro’s crumpled form, Sayori runs over to Monika to check her injuries.

Yuri looks a little freaked out, but she’s convinced that Natsuki and I hate her. Approaching her would probably make things worse. And Sayori’s already checking up on Monika. So all Natsuki and I can do is just kinda… watch.

“So uh…” I say, desperate to break the silence. “Nice one with the folding chair.”

“I know, right?” Natsuki says. “Told ya I’d handle him.”

And handle him she did. With worrisome proficiency. I knew Natsuki was more than willing to get physical; I got plenty of experience with that throughout my week with the Literature Club. But I never imagined she could be so stone cold about this level of violence.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’d done something like this before.” I suggest.

“Yeah, well uh…” Natsuki turns away and scratches the back of her head. Uh oh. “Long story short, I’m used to having to fend for myself.”

That was vague. It certainly didn’t make me worry any less.

“But doesn’t your dad-”

“My dad is a deadbeat piece of shit, okay?” Natsuki snaps. “When he isn’t lying around, too busy feeling sorry for himself to _feed his only fucking daughter_ , he’s yelling at me about chores or criticizing my hobbies. He’s fucking useless, and I’m better off taking care of myself.”

I put my hands up in front of me. I’ve clearly struck a nerve, so I just keep my mouth shut.

“Sorry… I’ve been bottling that up for a while. Shouldn’t have taken it out on you, I guess.” Natsuki says. ”Now let’s change the subject, okay?”

I just nod and try and get a closer look at this Shiro character. Yuri clearly had a bone to pick with him, so I wonder if anything on his person will give me clues.

When Natsuki joins me, I see realization dawning on her face.

“Hey! This is the jerk from the taiyaki stand!” She says. “Your taiyaki was as crappy as your hairstyle! Spat it out right after the first bite!”

A little weird to start trash talking a corpse, but I imagine the stress of what just happened is getting to everyone. A few more “Get fucked!”s later, each one with noticeably less enthusiasm than the last, Natsuki looks away from Shiro’s remains and just kind of stares at the wall. If expressions could speak, Natsuki’s would be saying “Oh _shit_.” I think she’s starting to realize the gravity of our situation.

“Hey. Sorry to break up the tender little moment and everything.” Natsuki’s voice immediately gets Monika and Sayori’s attention. “But can we talk about the fact that we just, y’know, killed somebody?”

“Ahaha… That is pretty serious…” Monika says, with a humorless chuckle. By now Sayori had taken a look at the scratches and bruises that Shiro had left on Monika, and seen that they weren’t anything that needed treatment.

But you wouldn’t know that by looking at Sayori’s expression. You’d think Monika had seconds to live if you went by that.

“Guys?” Sayori begins, sounding almost like she was about to cry. “I think we might have a bigger problem than that.”

“What? I’m fine, right?” Monika asks.

Sayori shakes her head. “You’re okay. That’s not what I’m worried about.” She stops, looks at Shiro’s body, then at all of us. “This guy. Shiro… He had the bug that half the school had.”

You can see the realization dawning on everyone in the room just by looking at their faces. Monika’s horror at the idea is clear just from looking at her. Yuri’s face switches between relief and dread. Sayori just solemnly nods. Natsuki, however, almost looks like she takes offense to the notion.

“Hold on. You’re not trying to tell me that this little flu outbreak is the first day of the-”

Three more, looking just as feral as Shiro, slam themselves against the classroom door.

“Zombie… apocalypse.” Natsuki trails off as her attempt at denial crumbles before her.

For a moment I’m thankful that someone took the time to close the door after the whole Shiro debacle, but then I spot it. Oh, fuck me. One of the zombies is the _principal!_

“What do we do?” Natsuki asks, turning her gaze to Monika. The club president’s eyes lock on the window of the classroom door. I can see her trying to keep her composure well enough to make a decision.

“What do we _do!?_ ” Natsuki insists.

“Well we’re not staying here, that’s for god damn sure!” Monika snaps back. “Since you’re so damn eager for an answer, care to suggest _where?_ ”

Yuri, of all people, cuts into the rising argument. “We’ll head for my house.”

It’s a bit weird that _Yuri_ would be the one to break the stalemate, but maybe she just didn’t think anyone else would.

“It’s as good a plan as any.” I say, shrugging.

“Okay everyone…” Monika says, seeming to remember that she’s supposed to be club president here. “Let’s get moving while that door’s still on it’s hinges…”

_“Unarmed?”_ Natsuki asks, eyebrow raised.

Monika gestures to the folding chair that has a fresh dent in it.

“Well yeah, Yuri and I are armed, but what about everyone else?” Natsuki says.

At that, Yuri reaches back into her bag and hands Monika another knife.

Geez. How many of those does she carry?

After giving it a look over, she offers it to Sayori, but she shakes her head.

“I hate violence. You’ll have the heart to actually use it.” She says.

“We can’t just leave you defenseless, Sayori!” I protest.

“I’m not defenseless.” Sayori says, smiling that cancer-curing smile of hers. “I have you guys!~”

Natsuki opens her mouth to protest, but then the principal’s loose fist finally manages to shatter the glass on the door.

“Ah dammit, get moving!” Monika shouts. “We’ll find something to protect ourselves with on the way!”

Monika throws the _other_ classroom door open and we all book it. I don’t think I’ve ever sprinted quite as hard as this in my life. 

On the way to the stairwell, we pass a few more of the infected, but I notice that not all of them are running after us. Some of them are shambling instead. Maybe we won’t have to worry about _all_ of them. I just hope the runners aren’t coordinated enough to follow us down the stairs.

Even I’m surprised by how quickly we manage to reach the stairwell. If I’d made it through the halls this quickly any other day, I’d never have to worry about being late for class again.

Before we can make it to the stairs, a mass of panicked students rushes past us. One of the running infectees and at least a dozen shamblers are hot on their tail. I see the runner faceplant and crumple violently down the stairs like a sack of dried bone, but then it gets right back up; hobbling on a visibly broken leg.

A second later another runner slams its entire body into me. I feel it’s teeth graze my neck before I shove it back with my elbow. It’s right back on me in a second, but at least now I’ve got my face to it. 

“MC, duck!” I hear Natsuki shout. I already know what’s coming.

Natsuki’s folding chair of justice comes in from the right and catches the hapless infectee right in the teeth. There’s enough momentum there to slam them into the wall of the stairwell.

The infectee, despite having half its teeth forcefully relocated to the back of its throat, regains its footing and runs at Natsuki. I can see she’s still recovering from the first swing. She _might_ be able to wind up for a second one in time, but I don’t want to make that bet.

Not knowing what else to do, I throw my leg out in front of the infectee.

Holy shit I can’t believe that worked! The infectee faceplants a few feet from Natsuki. With one last stroke of that formidable folding chair, the infectee stops moving.

The crowd‘s cleared by now, and the five of us take the stairs three steps at a time. But even that isn’t fast enough to reach the infected that had some poor girl pinned to the wall. By the time Monika puts it in a chokehold, it’s already bitten a gash out of the other girl’s arm and puked in it. That puking thing looked pretty deliberate.

I just barely manage to keep my own bile inside me. Needless to say, the rest of us grab the infectee and toss him down the stairs. I’m pretty sure all of us made a point of kicking him in the head as we made our way to the ground floor.

When we head down the ground floor halls and finally reach the front doors, we find that our biggest obstacle isn’t the infected, but our fellow students. Some absolute scumfuck has gotten it in his head to chain shut all but two of the doors.

“Two bucks and fifty yen per person!” He shouts. 

He’s got two pretty muscular looking cronies at each of his sides. The most shocking thing about this? People are _actually paying him!_ Some people rummage through their bags, others plead for the money needed for their passage. I think they call this the “Bystander effect”? “Mob Mentality”?

Whatever the name is, Natsuki is clearly having precisely none of that shit. She marches right up to this scumfuck huckster; the crowd parting around her like she’s a tiny, pissed off, pink haired Moses.

Without missing a beat, Natsuki raises her mighty folding chair and brings it right down on the guy’s skull, using the narrow part of it at that. The wet **[CRACK]** echoes through the entire room. Even scumfuck’s bodyguards are too shocked to do anything.

My mind’s eye conjures the image of this dude’s cranium bones getting completely annihilated in slow motion. Considering what he was trying to do, it’s actually kind of awesome.

“Keep the change.” She spits at scumfuck’s bleeding, concussed form. 

As much as I want to shout “Way to go, Natsuki!” or “DAAAAAAAAAAAAYUM” I quickly remember that his bodyguards are still standing. I move to confront one of them, but it seems Yuri had the same idea.

With a brandish of her knife’s business end, the two bodyguards immediately open the door to let Natsuki and Yuri through.

The rest of the crowd is quick to follow them. Some simply run for the hills, a few stop to thank or congratulate the two for ending that guy’s little get rich quick scheme. The rest of us are quick to rejoin them. The great throng of humanity is dispersed, we’re back together, but there’s still an entire school filled with… can I really call them “zombies”? Behind us.

“Alright, Yuri.” Monika says, catching her breath. “Lead the way.”

With a wordless nod, Yuri takes to the front of the group; her knife out and at the ready all the while. 

On the way to Yuri’s house, I find my gaze continually drifting to Natsuki.

Despite her size, she and Yuri are easily the two members of our club who are the most proactive about getting stuck in with a fight. We make our way through the chaotic streets, and I begin to notice a pattern.

Natsuki is almost always the one to swing first against both infected and uninfected, but if the fight doesn’t end with a single blow, the unwieldiness of her folding chair leaves her wide open to getting attacked herself. Whether it be Yuri, Monika or myself, someone has to step in and buy her time to get another swing ready.

But despite her being the smallest and youngest member of the club, Natsuki consistently proves to be the one among us most willing to engage when a threat presents itself. It’d be easy to say that that was because she’s the most courageous of us all, but given what she’s told me about her life, I fear that she might just be the one who’s the most used to violence. But in either case, I can’t help but admire her willingness to lead the charge. All the more reason to love her. I’d better hold on to Natsuki for as long as I can.

By the time we reach Yuri’s house, the setting sun is almost covered by the smoke of burning buildings to the west. The usual walk home has been transformed into a gauntlet of ravening infected, terror-struck survivors doing _anything_ they can to survive, speeding road traffic that nearly took Monika’s head clean off, and the burning wrecks of vehicles that have already crashed; a few of them with freshly turned infected at the wheel.

As Yuri unlocks the front door of her home, the rest of us waste no time piling in and finding the first available seat to collapse on. Anything for a chance to catch our breath. When Yuri and Monika push a cabinet in front of the front door, _then_ I manage to relax.

“So Yuri, why did you suggest we come to _your_ house?” Sayori asks the question that was likely on everyone’s mind. The silence on Yuri’s end is deafening, or was it how loudly Yuri was blushing?

I’m just as clueless as everyone else. If she has something that would be useful or there was something about this house that would make survival easier, then why is she blushing? We’re going upstairs, where bedrooms tend to be. Is she planning what I think she’s planning?

As we ascend the stairs, a joke about taking all of us at once comes to mind, but I bite my tongue. A few steps down the hallway later, the lot of us are beginning to crowd Yuri’s rather tidy room. The only thing neater than Yuri’s impeccably made bed, or the pristine surface of her writing desk, has to be the glass cases in which Yuri keeps a dazzling array of knives.

Needless to say, we’re all taken aback by the knife cases.

“Geez, what do you need all of these for?” Natsuki says. 

Sayori just stares at one of the cases with dumbstruck anxiety.

“Ahaha… I always wondered where you kept all of these things, Yuri.” Monika says, doing her best to mask her discomfort. Did Monika know about this? How?

I, for one, look over the display cases with a casual interest. It’s not much, but seeing that I’m not freaked out seems to be a massive source of comfort to Yuri. Even if Yuri’s convinced herself that I hate her, at least _someone_ isn’t judging her.

Yuri turns her back to us and approaches a Nightwish poster on her wall. I watch her poke it in what looks like a deliberate, complex sequence, and the section of wall that it’s on sinks in and slides to the right. When I get an eyeful of what’s on the other side, I learn that “a knife collection” was the wrong term for what Yuri has.

Try “a fucking arsenal”.

Besides some bigger bladed instruments, Yuri’s also got… I think that one rapper said “Like seven MAC 11s, about eight .38s nine 9s, ten MAC 10s, the shits never end!” Of course, I don’t know what any of those are besides “guns”, but the shits really don’t ever end in this room.

Seriously. She could arm the entire city block with this collection!

Before I can reclaim my jaw from the floor, Yuri speaks.

“I believe this answers your question, Sayori?” she says, her eyes welded to the floor.

“Yeah…” Is all Sayori manages, visibly uncomfortable in the presence of so much weaponry.

“It raises a lot more, though…” Monika says. Once again, Yuri cuts in.

“My parents don’t worry about my hobbies so long as I keep my grades up, yes, this is where most of my disposable income goes, it’s not a matter of need as much as desire, and yes. Everything here was obtained legally.” 

Yuri’s justifications come out with such clarity, such speed, that I get the impression that she’s been defending herself in her head for years now.

“Well, no sense looking a gift horse in the mouth.” I say.

Since everyone else seems to be getting more comfortable with the idea of this all, I can see Yuri finally look up from the floor, and even smile. “You’re all welcome to anything here, and to ask me any questions you may have.”

“I dunno... “ Natsuki says “I’m getting kind of attached to this folding chair h- oh _hello_ beautiful!”

Natsuki drops the folding chair the moment she sees a rather hefty looking greatsword. I think I recognize the manga that’s from, and I guess Natsuki does too.

Now, what should _I_ arm up with?

I don’t have a very strong idea of what I want, but it sounds like Natsuki does. Maybe she’ll be able to give me some guidance.

Right now she’s trying to pull that greatsword off the wall, but it’s right up by the ceiling. No way she’s getting that down unassisted.

“MC!” Natsuki must have seen me walking towards her. “Help me get Raugsdagnir down from the wall.”

“Oh yeah. That’s what that sword was called.” I remark, not sure of how to actually help Natsuki. So I just wind up standing there for a moment.

“Did I ask you to help me, or did I ask you to watch me struggle?” Natsuki snaps.

I put my hands up in the same defensive gesture as before. “Could you at least give me some direction?”

“Just give me a boost, alright?” Natsuki says. “And no peeking up my skirt this time, got it?”

“I wasn’t-” Ah, forget it. She’s not going to listen. Instead, I squat down, wrap my arms around her shins and hoist Natsuki up onto my shoulders.

“ _That’s_ more like it!” Natsuki says.

Y’know, she may be on the smaller side, but I wasn’t expecting Natsuki to be as light as she is. It proves surprisingly easy to walk up to the wall with her on my shoulder.

“C’mon, almoooooost…” Natsuki reaches up and soon manages to get a hand on “Raugsdagnir’s” handle. She lifts it up off the pegboard to which it was mounted…

Aaaaaaaaand promptly sends the whole hunk of steel clattering to the floor.

“Uwaa!-” Natsuki must not have expected the greatsword to be that heavy, and the two of us go tumbling to the floor right behind Raugsdagnir.

Thankfully I don’t hit my head on anything hard on the way down, but I do notice my face coming into contact with something rather soft and dark blue.

I look up at Natsuki, and Natsuki looks down at me, and I realize that I landed right between Natsuki’s legs, with my face right up against her… her-

"Hey! G-Get off me, MC!” Natsuki shouts, bring her knee hard into my shoulder.

With a grunt of pain, I roll off of Natsuki in the direction that her knee tried to send me.

“Ahaha… do you two need some privacy?” Monika asks.

“SHUT UP, MONIKA!” Natsuki shouts. The way her voice cracks as she yells makes me worry that tears might be next.

“Ugh… That’s _twice_ today....” Natsuki says with a huff of frustration. “But, we got Raugsdagnir down. Mission accomplished, I guess.”

Natsuki and I return to our feet. Once she’s up, Natsuki tries again to lift the greatsword she’d gotten so attached to. Given the strength she’s demonstrated before, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that she actually manages to bring Raugsdagnir off the floor and heft it onto her shoulder. It’s clearly not an easy feat for her, though. Hell. I don’t think _I_ could even lug that thing around all day!

“Oh man, I am going to _smite_ zombies with this thing!” Natsuki says, beaming despite the visible tremble in her arms. “Hey, you think I could pull off Setsuna’s Giga Sun Buster with this?”

“ _In here?_ Haven’t we already caused enough excitement?” I say.

“Well, obviously not, dummy! You can’t swing something this huge indoors! You’d...” Natsuki trails off.

“You’d…” I think Natsuki’s starting to see all the issues with hauling Raugsdagnir around all day. “Dammit! I just wanted to feel like a badass! Is that such a crime?”

“Hey, I get it. Maybe there’s a more practical way to do that.” I say.

“Like what?” Natsuki says.

"Well…” I look around me at all the pegboarded rifles and shotguns, then down to the tables full of smaller weaponry. Honestly? I don’t know the first damn thing about any of them. I think I might’ve seen a few of these in video games before, but that’s hardly the world’s best teacher.

“Yuri will know what to do.” I suggest.

Natsuki visibly balks at that suggestion. “But she… She’ll…” Any argument she may have had dies on her lips. “Fine.”

“Hey, Yuri?” I say, beckoning her over. I don’t like the way she sighs before approaching us.

“Yes?” Is all Yuri manages. Geez. It’s like her every bit of body language is an unspoken apology for existing right now.

“What weapon do you think would work best for Natsuki?” I ask.

Yuri’s shoulders drop a little, and she turns more of our face towards us. Almost like she was anticipating being hit but realized it wasn’t coming. “Oh… Well uh… Natsuki, may I state an observation I’ve made?”

“Sure, get it over with.” Natsuki says, rolling her eyes.

“On the way here, I noticed that you seem to prefer quick, decisive blows that incapacitate upon the first strike.” Yuri says, a flash of fear crossing her face. “I-I’m sorry! I’ve overstepped my bounds, haven’t I?”

“No, that’s… actually pretty accurate.” Natsuki says.

I see Yuri mouth the words “Oh thank god” before she walks past us to look for something.

When Yuri returns, she hands Natsuki one of those folding shovels that the army uses.

“A _garden tool?_ ” Natsuki says, the incredulity clear in her voice.

“N-Not just! It’s also functions like an axe!” Yuri says, quickly trying to correct the offense she was sure she had caused. “It’s… from a zombie novel I read once.”

“Okay?...” Natsuki says.

“In the story, the United Prefectures Marine Corps winds up short on supply, so one of their soldiers winds up producing one of these in the field, and soon enough, it gets adopted as the Standard Infantry Entrenchment Tool. But most everyone calls it ‘The Lobotomizer’, or ‘LOBO’ for short.” Yuri says, starting to look more at the air past us than at Natsuki.

“The _Lobotomizer!_ Okay, that, I can totally get behind!” Natsuki says, the smile returning to her face as she looks the Lobo over.

“And uh… Yuri?” Natsuki says. “Sorry for… being kind of a jerk to you."

“I understand, Natsuki.” Yuri says. “I’ve been quite condescending to you in the past, so I don’t blame you for hating me.”

“Hey! Quit dumping on yourself you dummy!” Natsuki snaps. “You’re cool, alright? Jeez…”

“Careful, Yuri. Make her give more than three compliments a day and her head explodes.” I say. Natsuki jabs her elbow into my ribs for that one, but it’s worth it to get a little payback for all the times she’s chided me.

Sayori is looking down at a compact shotgun; the kind with the two barrels next to each other. The look on Sayori’s face reminds me of an expression she would make when we went trick-or-treating as kids. She’d always have that exact look on her face if she wasn’t happy with the candy the last house gave her.

Yuri’s got a katana sheathed on a belt around her waist, and now she’s explaining something to Monika regarding a rather old-looking rifle. I can hear Monika curse under her breath as her thumb gets caught in some part of the gun. While Yuri explains how to avoid “Garand thumb”, I get back to picking out my own weapon.

I see Natsuki eyeing up a pretty serious looking revolver, so she must really be doubling down on the whole “Finish it fast” thing. If we’re going to fight together, maybe my choices should fill in the gaps that Natsuki’s leave. I imagine that revolver can peg a zombie from pretty far off, but the kick must be brutal. No way you’ll be firing that quickly. Maybe one of these smaller handguns that you can just keep pulling the trigger on would be a good compliment to that. Maybe a dagger to add some stabbing to Natsuki’s chopping.

Yuri gives me some guidance with the handgun, and by the time Monika grabs everyone’s attention, I’ve just about got this whole “Colt 1911” thing on lock.

“Okay everyone! It’s time to…” Monika’s usual confidence wavers in the face of what’s going on outside of these walls. “Time to figure out our next move...”

“Why don’t we just stay here?” I ask, my eyes scanning over the remaining weaponry. “We’ve got everything we need here, don’t we?”

“It’s well stocked, yeah, but it’s also in the middle of a city full of zombies.” Monika says.

“That also makes it a prime target for looters.” Natsuki adds.

“MC was just trying to help.” Sayori protests. I think she might be more upset about their counterpoints than I am.

“Nah, it’s alright Sayori. Somewhere this populated might just get bombed by the army.” I say with a shrug. “In hindsight it was obviously a shit idea.”

“It was logical enough, MC” Yuri says with a sigh. “Though I’m struggling to think of anywhere better to be. Where is there that we can be well sheltered, well armed _and_ a comfortable distance from the rest of society?”

Both Sayori and Yuri called me “MC” in the midst of a dead serious conversation about how to survive. So y’know what? Fuck it. If they’re _this_ committed to the “MC” joke, I guess I’ll just roll with it.

There’s a look in Sayori’s eyes. Her dejection is immediately erased by the eureka moment I can see on her face.

“I have an uncle.” Sayori starts, before visibly struggling with how to continue that thought.

“That’s nice. Totally irrelevant, but nice.” Natsuki says, earning her a few daggers glared in her direction.

“No! He… He’s been preparing for something like this for years! Lives in the woods in a…” Sayori trails off again. “In a… What did he call it?”

“A compound! He built a whole compound in case this exact thing happened!” Sayori finishes her thought.

“Running water, electricity, everything?” Monika asks, met with Sayori’s enthusiastic nodding.

“He’s even got wifi!~” Sayori says with a grin.

“Well then! That sounds perfect!” Natsuki says. Even she’s smiling now. “And uh… sorry for being all impatient with you, I guess…”

“Any objections?” Monika asks. “No? Then it’s settled. Tomorrow we start heading for wherever Sayori’s uncle lives. Where is that anyway?”

“In the woods, off of this one highway by a stream…” Sayori closes her eyes and circles her fingers on her temples to remember every detail. “Right by mount… Mt. Amagoi!”

Monika nods as she takes the info in. “That’s about 30 miles from here...”

“We don’t have to do it all in one trip.” I say. “As long as we can find safe places to spend the night, we can go at our own pace.”

“True… But for now, we rest up.” Monika points to a window back in the normal part of Yuri’s bedroom. We all see that the sun set a long time ago.

With that, we all begin to settle in for the night. Monika meditates and prepares every bit of research she can think of. Routes to Mt. Amagoi, online survival manuals, you name it. Natsuki sets to making dinner from whatever she can muster in the kitchen. Whatever she whips up, I’m sure it’ll be a treat. Yuri preps the teapot and sets that aromatherapy device up again. Sayori’s first instinct is to gather everything she can think of for tending to wounds.

As everyone prepares for the coming storm, one thought dominates my mind.

This is going to be our last night of something resembling normalcy, isn’t it? Our last night with a sturdy roof over our heads, a kitchen full of food, a shower with warm running water. Even our confidence that we’ll live to see tomorrow is soon to be in question.

But I take a look over our little survivor band again. The way everyone finds what they’re good at and does it with all their heart; the way it all seems to synergize. If we can just keep it together, I think we can take whatever the world throws our way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit longer than the first chapter, huh? That's why this took so long to release.
> 
> I'm also excited to announce that a DDLC mod version of this story is now in development! Be on the lookout for Doki Doki Outbreak, which we plan to release in an episodic format for the sake of the project not taking a decade to finish.


	3. Departure

I spend the night lying on some bunched up towels on the living room carpet. But after all the insanity that happened yesterday, it feels like I’m sleeping on the finest mattress this side of Honolulu.

I awaken to the sound of a news broadcast on the living room TV. Right at sunrise. Once I’ve blinked the sleep from my eyes and remembered where I was, I finally begin to hear what the news caster is saying.

“The death toll has now reached an estimated 70,000 and will only increase as the days go by.”

I watch Monika run a hand down the side of her head in disbelief at the death toll. The number makes my heart sink like a rock, but I force myself to keep listening for any useful information.

“Congress has convened an emergency session to vote on a quarantine of the Japanese archipelago prefectures; voting near unanimously in favor.”

“So they’re just _abandoning_ us!” Natsuki exclaims in a whisper. Monika raises her finger for silence, much to Natsuki’s chagrin.

“As we speak, the UP Navy Sixth Fleet is en route to drop supplies to the home islands by air. Including food, clothing and-”

“See? No abandonment.” Monika’s remark makes me miss the end of that sentence.

“Until then, citizens are advised to stay in their homes, conserve all available food and water, and not to open their doors for anyone but government officials.”

Welp, looks like we’re already breaking that rule.

“Research into the cause of the infection is ongoing, but a link has been confirmed with the bile of infected individuals.”

The three of us look at each other; all of us thinking of that poor girl in the stairwell. None of us have to say a word to convey what hindsight has put in our minds.

The arrival of Yuri and Sayori from down the stairs spares us from contemplating her fate too deeply. Thank god.

“Hey, what’s on the news?” Sayori asks, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

“Any information that will aid our survival?” Yuri adds. 

Monika sighs. “Lots of people are dead. Japan’s been quarantined. They’ll be air dropping supplies, and don’t get puked on.”

That last remark puts a “well, duh” look on Sayori and Yuri’s faces.

“What she means is… is… you’ll, like,  _ die _ if you get puked on... By a zombie, that is.” I say. Good lord. That was the verbal version of trying to do a synchronized dance that nobody ever taught you. On stage.

“Monika? Is MC okay?” Sayori asks.

“No, what he just said is true. As crazy as it sounds.” Monika says, clearly _wishing_ that that was just crazy talk.

“...No seriously. Is he okay?” Natsuki asks.

“Yeah, just a clumsy sentence is all.” I say.

“The important thing is that it’s time to get moving. If you’ve got any final preparations, now’s the time.” Monika says.

That seems to remind Yuri of something, since she immediately rushes back to her room for some reason. Yuri’s already furnished all of us with ammo, straps and holsters for our respective weapons, so that’s taken care of. We all forgot our backpacks at school, so we’ve all figured out our own ways of carrying our stuff. We have enough food and water between us to last about three days.

Hell. We even know what our first stop is. Yuri mentioned a konbini a few blocks away that will make a good place to rest.

So what did Yuri forget?

Yuri answers that question by coming back downstairs and handing Monika a leather jacket.

“Since you’ve taken charge, I suppose it’s only fair that I give you something that can fend off claws and bites.” Yuri explained.

Monika looks quite pleased with this new piece of protection as she looks it over.

That is, until she sees a 2 foot wide “Female Body Inspector” patch embroidered onto the back.

I’d describe the look Monika’s giving Yuri right now, but every time I try, I laugh too hard to get the words out.

“W-Well! That’s… It’s…”

“I stole it from Shiro!” Yuri finally blurts out.

Much to Yuri’s relief; that explanation seems to satisfy Monika, and she swaps her school blazer out for the leather jacket. She even lets out an “Ooh!” while she discovers more and more pockets on her new coat.

“You guys ready? ‘Cause I’m as ready as can be now!” Monika says. She certainly forgave Shiro’s crass tastes in a heartbeat.

“Lock and load!” Natsuki shouts, pulling back the hammer on her revolver

“I’ve been waiting for this for years.” Yuri says, loosing her katana with the speed and grace of a samurai.

“We’ll be okay… We’ll be okay…” Sayori repeats to herself.

“Well, we have each other, right? That’s all I really need.” I say. I can tell by everyone’s faces that that came off as more corny than touching, but at least my bumbling raised spirits a little.

“Alright.” Monika says, loading a clip into that old rifle that Yuri gave her. “Konbini, here we come!”

I try and dramatically kick the door open, but quickly notice that it opens inward, so I just wind up standing there with my foot in the air.

“What? Waiting to squish a zombie leprechaun?” Natsuki says. I notice the other three watching me as I stand there; looking like I’m doing some sort of dumbassed crane pose.

“W-Well, I was _going_ to kick the door open, but…” I try to defend myself, but the more I think about it, the more I realize what a stupid idea that was to begin with. 

“So much for being a badass.” I think to myself.

With a defeated sigh, I just open the door like a normal human being.

So much for being a badass indeed...

I look out onto the street and see a dense, shambling _glut_ of infected choking the street in front of Yuri’s house. I don’t think I can see a single inch of pavement. Only her tiny front yard remains free of the crowd. Even then, a few zombies mindlessly wave their arms through the bars of her front gate.

“Father, Son and Amaterasu…” Monika says.

The rest of us just stare at the impenetrable mass before us in disbelief. Not only are we all wondering how exactly we’re supposed to navigate this, but I’m sure we’re all trying not to think about who anyone in this human clot was just 48 hours ago.

“I don’t think we can fight our way through that…” Sayori says. I can see the despair sinking into her expression already. I’d better make sure the conversation doesn’t end there.

“You sure you guys don’t want to just wait things out here?” I ask. Maybe that wasn’t such a terrible plan after all.

Yuri shakes her head “I’m afraid we can’t. Not for long, at least.”

Before I can ask why not, Yuri mimes an aircraft flying past, a bomb falling, and then the kaboom of it going off. Her sound effects even accounted for the doppler effect on the plane and the sound of the bomb not hitting the ears immediately.

Maybe a bit too much detail, but the point was made.

“Right…” I say, kicking myself when I remember that I was the one who suggested that possibility in the first place.

“So we can’t go, but we can’t stay here.” Natsuki says, resting her forehead in her palm. “Dammit!”

“Wait. Hold on, guys.” Monika says. “The streets are full of zombies, yeah. But that’s the _streets_.”

“No shit, Sherlock.” Natsuki groans.

“No! Look again. Look into the yard across from us.” Monika insists, pointing for emphasis. “See any zombies there?”

I follow Monika’s finger and look for myself. Lo and behold, anywhere that has a closed barrier between it and the street free of zombies!

“Good catch, Monika!” I say. If we can just stay away from the main roads, we’ll be fine!

“But we still have to cross the street, don’t we?” Sayori says, not looking _quite_ as gloomy as she did before.

“We don’t.” Yuri says.

Yuri beckons us to follow her with a gesture of her head. 

When we meet her in the backyard, we’re greeted by a sight much like other backyards in our city. It’s a long patch of lawn and greenery; surrounded on all sides by the houses and businesses of Yuri’s block. Each building forms part of the wall that secludes this island of green from the eyes and noise of the street. The whole of it is divided by fences of every type you can imagine.

And wouldn’t you know it? It was zombie free!

“Were it not for the.. well… ‘congestion’ of the street, we’d have simply taken a right at my front door until we reached Misuzu Street. But if we cut through here, we needn’t deal with them until we need to cross to Panaya Road.” Yuri explains.

“So we’re putting the fight off?” Natsuki asks.

“And abbreviating it.” Yuri says, already halfway over her backyard fence.

But when Yuri looks back at all of us, she seems to lose her confidence and gets back down. “That is… I’m sorry. I never confirmed if you were all in favor of this plan before I-”

“Yuri.” Monika cut in tersely. “It’s the best idea we have. You know the area better than us. It’s  _ fine _ . Now  _ move. _ ”

Yuri just looks at Monika like a kicked puppy before she goes back to hopping the fence. The rest of us are quick to follow. Monika makes it over without much of a struggle. Yuri nearly loses her footing on the wood planks before she makes it over. Natsuki needs a hand from Monika to reach the top, and Sayori and I both need someone to pull us over.

But hey! We’re all over the fence now. We’ve taken the first step of… a lot of steps to Uncle J’s place.

“Get up, Nerd.” Natsuki offers me a hand, since I landed on my ass.

I accept, but not without a jab of my own. “What? Still paranoid about me looking up your skirt?”

“Hey now, you’re the one who brought up peeping. Not me.” Natsuki says as we start crossing this first backyard.

“I’m just trying not to give Monika any more ammunition.” I say.

“Yeah, fair enough. What the hell’s her deal, anyway?” Natsuki says, one foot in the chain-link fence on the other side of this backyard.

“You talking about the Yuri thing?” I ask.

“Well, that too.” Natsuki says. Now that she’s over the fence, she waits for me on the other side. It’s a fairly short one, so neither of us had any trouble crossing. “I get that Yuri’s constantly looking for approval is kinda tiring sometimes. But that’s no excuse to be so nasty with her.”

“I think it might be a bit more than just that, Natsuki.” I say. “Notice how she’s kinda taken charge? That’s gotta be weighing on her.”

“Yeah, good point.” Natsuki says, immediately followed by an “Ah shit.”

The fence in front of us is one of those plastic barriers pretending to be a picket fence, and there’s absolutely zero space between each of the plastic pickets. To make matters worse, the horizontal bars that hold them together must be on the other side. There’s no way we’re crossing this one without help.

“Wanna see if one of the others will help us over?” I suggest.

“I don’t need em’. _We_ don’t need em’.” Natsuki insists.

“But how are we going to get over?” I ask.

“I’m sure we’ll find an answer in there.” Natsuki says, pointing her lobo at a shed in this backyard. Right behind this huge maple tree that spills over into the two adjacent backyards.

“Good eye! There’s probably a ladder in there. Maybe a rope.” I say.

We approach the shed, only to find that it’s been padlocked shut. Natsuki tries just pulling it off, but growls with frustration when she can’t.

“The fence is locked, the shed’s locked…” Natsuki unholsters that beastly revolver she picked up last night. “Well, I’m the locksmith!”

**[BANG]**

My whole body flinches at the volume of the revolver going off. It’s loud enough that you don’t just hear it, but you feel it in your chest too.

_"Jesus…"_ Natsuki rubs her wrist once she has the revolver holstered, but hey! It broke the lock open.

I pull the broken padlock off and open the door. We’re greeted by the sight of the most standard, basic “Dad’s tool shed” sight we could possibly expect. That pair of fluffy pink shackles on the left wall is a little unusual though. I can only hope they’re there because the missus of this house likes them.

I look at the shackles, Natsuki looks at me. Natsuki looks at the shackles, and then back to me.

We both wordlessly agree to try _really_ hard to ignore them, pretend they aren’t there, and never mention them again.

“Yeah, uh… now let’s find that ladder.” Natsuki says.

There isn’t one up in the rafters of the shed, and I don’t see one hanging on the wall either. That’s probably because it’s hung on the inside of the shed’s double doors.

“Ah, bingo!” I say, pulling the ladder off of its hanger. Geez, this thing is heavy. It’s one of those metal ladders where one half slides down to make it easier to carry.

“Whoa, watch it!” Natsuki ducks as I try and get a better grip on this behemoth. I come just shy of knocking some half-finished bar stools off a workbench before I finally start to bring the ladder out of the shed.

I power walk up to the fence and all but throw this thing off my shoulder to form a ramp over this picket fence.

“Guh… There we go. Ready, Natsuki?” I can’t see where she went. “...Natsuki?”

I walk back to the shed, now unburdened, and find Natsuki rummaging through every drawer and shelf, nook and cranny.

Something doesn’t feel right about this…

“Uh, taking the ladder was one thing, but ransacking this guy’s shed?” I ask.

“Well I’m sure we can apologise when he comes gurgling and puking in our general direction.” Natsuki snaps back.

“But how do we know he’s infected?” I ask.

“Well don’t you think he’d have come and yelled at us by now if he wasn’t?” Natsuki says.

That is a good point. There’s a chance he’s just not going to risk the confrontation.

“Right, and we could just apologise and return anything we find if he does.” I say.

“Or we could just shoot him.” Natsuki says, as if she were suggesting a different route to the laundromat. I knew she was pretty stone cold, but this? Jesus...

“...What the _fuck_ , Natsuki?” I say.

Natsuki rolls her eyes. “This is the _apocalypse_ , MC. You gotta look out for number one. It’s kill or be killed, got it?”

What the hell is she saying? “Jesus christ, you sound like the faceless bandit dudes in a zombie movie right now.”

“I _sound_ like a realist. Do you want to survive or not?” Natsuki says.

“But what if the tables were turned?” I ask. “Let’s say someone starts going through my pack, and they shoot me in the face when I try to stop them. Then when you go and ask them why they did it, they said ‘It’s the apocalypse, Natsuki. I gotta look out for number one.’ How would you feel?”

Natsuki starts out giving me an annoyed look, but as I keep going, I can see my point starting to sink in.

“There will be life after this, Natsuki.” I say, starting firmly into her eyes. “And when this is all over, the world won’t be rebuilt by people thinking like a bunch of raiders.”

“But… How do you know this plague won’t end the world?” Natsuki asks, nowhere near as sure of herself as when she last spoke.

“Well, we have a hell of a better chance of surviving if we aren’t all robbing and murdering each other, right?” I say.

“Yeah, you’re right…” Natsuki sighs. “But if anyone fucks with us I’m still shooting first, got it?”

I shrug. “Fair enough. Now, let’s catch up with the rest of the group.”

We regroup with the others in a fenced off alleyway. Thanks to Natsuki hacking away at the last few fences with her Lobo, the  two of are were spared having to climb over.  There was no god damn way we were lugging that ladder around with us, after all.

“Okay, that’s everyone. Let’s get moving.” Monika says. But when she goes to open the door in front of her, Yuri stops her.

“If you don’t mind, we’ll… Let’s go a few doors down, to your right. We’ll need to close every inch between us and Panaya Road we can.” She says.

“It is pretty quiet right now, but you’re right. Who knows how long that will last?” Monika says. “Take the lead, Yuri.”

Something changes in Yuri. The same thing that changed when she insisted on reciting her poem next. Whatever prompted it, Yuri gets that serious, confident look in her eye as she leads us to a few doors to the right. She even draws her pistol and looks down the sights as she moves. Something about seeing that gets me thinking, and I instinctually aim  the 1911 at the area behind us. I’ve played enough online shooters to know that it’s a good idea to guard the sightlines that your teammates aren’t.

“Clear!” I hear Yuri call from behind me. Sounds like my cue to get indoors.

I’m the last of the five to enter, and I close the door behind us. When I turn around and get a look at my surroundings, I find myself in a commercial grade kitchen. All of the lights are working, except the three shattered ones. Pots, pans and condiments can be found just about everywhere but where they’re supposed to be. People really turned this deli upside down last night, huh? Still, Natsuki starts scouring the kitchen for any useful foodstuffs.

Through the shattered glass of the counter’s display window, we finally lay eyes on Misuzu Street. There’s a surprisingly small number of zombies out there, but I quickly remember that we can only see a small sliver of the whole road. I can’t quite make out what the building across the street is. My best guess is some kind of office building.

“Alright. So what’s the plan now?” I ask nobody in particular.

“It looks like we could run across.” Sayori says, a glint of hope in her eyes.

Monika shakes her head. “They’ll be on us the second they know we’re here. We’ll have to fight a few of them at least.”

Before anyone else can remark, Natsuki cuts in with a “Tadaa!~”

She holds up a half-empty bottle of ponzu sauce and a can of Spam. “The scavenger extraordinaire does it again! You’re welcome.~”

“ _Natsuki._ ” Monika snaps in a harsh whisper. “Pipe down, the zombies are _right there!_ ”

I can see Natsuki about to snap back, but the mention of nearby zombies makes her reconsider.

“Hmph.” Is all the response Natsuki gives.  Knowing Natsuki, I can already tell she’s going to add this to her list of grudges against Monika.

“It’s okay. You didn’t know.” Sayori says. The consoling hand Sayori put on her arm seemed to be enough to get Natsuki to focus again. “Now, how do you think we should cross, Natsuki?”

”Can’t we just shoot those two guys in front of the door and go?” Natsuki asks, already pulling out her revolver.

“I guess that would work. Then we just shoot any of the others that show up.” I say.

“Sounds like a plan, then.” Monika says. “But who does the shooting?”

“Why don’t we all? Then we can be sure they go down, and we can all get a feel for our weapons.” Yuri suggests.

“Alright. We’ll take them out Napoleon style.” I say, already  bringing the pistol’s sights to my eye.

“On a count of three...” Monika says, shouldering her own rifle.

_ 3... _

_ 2... _

_ 1... _

**[BOOM]**

**[EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…]**

The two zombies are blown away by the volley, but so are my eardrums. The kick from the  pistol  isn’t _quite_ as bad as I thought it’d be, though.  I certainly felt it, but it didn’t threaten to come flying back into my face.

But we’ve got bigger problems than earaches. Turns out, the zombies are attracted to loud noises. You know, like five firearms going off at once. Two zombies are down, fifteen are now approaching us. Some of them are runners.

“Shit,  _ shit!” _ Natsuki fires her revolver again. She shakes out her wrist and curses to herself immediately after.

Monika’s Garand drops two shamblers with a single shot, but she goes a little overboard and winds up emptying her entire clip at the runners. Now she has to deal with that tricky reload.

Sayori is seated with her back pressed against the deli counter; frozen solid with terror.

Looks like it’s down to me and Yuri.

I start firing wildly into the mass of shamblers. Then I hear the click of an empty chamber. A runner pounces at me from over the counter.

I keep hitting him with the pistol’s muzzle, but he hits me harder with his fists. Right as his teeth get a grip on me, Yuri lops his head clean off. A single, graceful arc of her katana sends the runner’s head chomping ineffectually to the floor.

But all that just gave the shamblers time to close in. While Yuri fires her pistol into the approaching mass, I have just enough time to get another magazine in my own pistol to join her.

With my 1911 loaded and ready, I’m back in the fight.

Natsuki and Monika’s slow, punishing shots, paired with Yuri’s quick cherry-tapping pistol rounds only just holds the mob back. But it seems like my shots are just enough to push this stalemate over the edge. Slowly but surely, our combined firepower starts to thin the mob.

And just like that, the infected wave is now a small hill of bodies on the deli floor.

“Holy shit…” I say, finally lowering my  pistol.

“We… We did it!” Natsuki shouts, raising her Lobo in triumph.

About halfway through our first round of high fives and fistbumps, we hear the throaty roars of another hundred infected bearing down on us. It sounds like it’s coming from both sides.

Monika and I stand and stare at each other, both of our hands still frozen in the air for a high five that never happens.

Before any of us can even say “Oh shit”, half a dozen runners come rushing into the cafe. Shit, I’m still empty from the last fight!

I guess everyone else is too, because the other three have their melee weapons out. That’s what shakes me into remembering. “Reload! _Reload!_ ”

A runner comes at me from around the counter. This time I’m ready, and I plant my foot on his chest to pin him in front of the cash register.

Of course, that does nothing to stop him from clawing the shit out of my leg. Every time I try and pull another magazine out of my pack, the zombie damn near breaks my knee with his fist. Each blow hurts enough to make me lose focus. Once he pukes all over my ankle, the close brush with infection finally makes me realize something.

This is what that dagger I grabbed is for!

I pull the dagger out of its sheath. When the zombie throws his next punch, I intercept and stab clean through his wrist. This lets me push back and stab the blade into the pressboard deli counter; pinning his arm. He’s still punching with his other fist, but now I can focus enough to load a fresh magazine and put a bullet through his forehead.

The zombie goes limp under my bleeding, bile-stained leg. I look up in time to see  Yuri twirl the blood from the blade of her katana. I look to my left, I look to my right. I don’t see any more runners attacking us.

“That’s the last of them, then?” I ask.

The closing mass of shamblers answer my question for me. Not with words, but with the collective sound of their groans.

Monika hops over the counter and starts dashing across the street. Natsuki isn’t too far behind. I join them, but stop when I see that Yuri’s still got her feet planted. When she looks down to the floor, I realize what she’s looking at.

_ “Sayori!” _

I rush back behind the counter to find Sayori still frozen with terror. Our eyes meet, but she’s hyperventilating too hard to speak to me. Words aren’t going to do any good here. I just throw my arms around her and start running for the other side of the street. I know I’m leaving myself totally defenseless. But if that’s what I have to do to save the one person who knows me best, it will be done.

Thank god I’m not fighting alone. Monika and Natsuki fire shots at any zombie that looks like it’s getting too close. Even at their own peril. It’s not like the horde isn’t closing on them too.

Yuri takes up the rear. A stray runner comes at us in the direction we’d just come from, but Yuri’s bladesmanship makes short work of that one. A few broad arcs sever hands that get too close to Sayori and I.

I only realize that I’ve crossed the street alive when my shoulder brushes against Monika’s. Natsuki tries the hard oak front door, but it refuses to open.

“Sayori! The door!” Natsuki shouts. That was all she had time to say before another zombie closed into Lobo range.

Sayori’s eyes flash with realization at what Natsuki was asking of her, and she raises her shotgun at the door’s handle. The blast doesn’t go all the way through, but it makes a big enough dent that we can smash our way to the other side of the door handle.

Monika throws the door open with a “GO! GO! _GO!_ ”

We go, go, go alright. Even though we slammed the office door shut behind us, we know it isn’t going to hold. So we go, go, go. All the way to the second floor. Then we realize that will just trap us. So we just keep going until we’re on the roof of the building next door to the office.

Only then do we dare to try and catch our breath.

Monika braces her hands on her knees. Looks like she’s still got some fight in her. The rest of us? We practically collapse when we realize that the immediate danger has passed. Now that the rush of adrenaline is gone, I notice that my vision has gone fuzzy from the exertion, and how my heart is pounding incessantly in my ears.

“Any…” Sayori abandons that sentence when she finds that one word took all the air in her lungs. It takes her another five ragged huffs to try again. “Any-” [pant] “one-” [pant] “injured?” Sayori finally asks.

“Pants got puked on, but… “ The air is entering and leaving my lungs too quickly for me to say anything. So I just lean my head back on the air exhaust unit I’ve propped myself up against. Oh god… Ah fuck…

“You’ll be fine.” Monika says. I’m not sure if she’s finishing my sentence for me or reprimanding me for perceived weakness.

We all just sit there; too weak to even stand. Through my dulled vision, I watch a shambler lazily wave her arms from the roof we jumped from. Eventually, she leans forward just an inch too far and plummets into the alley between us.

Thank god. If she’d made it over, Monika would have been on her own in fending her off.

By the time we’ve all recovered, I see that the sun has passed its apex in the sky. At the same time, I notice some pretty serious looking clouds blowing in from the east.

I begin to pull some food out of my improvised pack, but Monika stops me.

“We’ll eat when we get where we’re going” She insists. “Now let’s _go_. We’ve wasted enough time, you big babies.”

“Well excuse _us_ , miss track star!” I hear Natsuki say under her breath. Nonetheless, the rest of us pull ourselves to our feet to keep moving.

Once Yuri gets us moving in the right direction, we continue crossing over the rooftops in silence. We only encounter a handful of easily disposed of infected up there, but the zombies aren’t what’s bothering me right now. It’s the silence.

Seriously. We just passed the intersection between Misuzu and Panaya, and none of us have said a word. Monika’s keeps her back to us as she leads the way, and I can see Natsuki trying to scowl a hole into the back of Monika’s skull. Yuri doesn’t watch Monika with _quite_ as much contempt, but I can tell she’s wondering what horrible things Monika is saying about her in her head.

Sayori attempts to start up a pleasant conversation a few times. She even tries to get us to sing, but the pointed silence quickly snuffs out these attempts to lighten the mood. This means I spend the next half an hour alone with my thoughts.

When I’m not navigating a gap between two buildings, I get a few moments to appreciate the view up here. I never did get to see my home city from the rooftops before. Then again, I’ve never seen it with half of the towers downtown burning either.

Speaking of fire, I can see smoke rising all over town from this vantage point. It makes me wish I could have come up here _before_ everything went to hell. If it weren’t for the reason  _ why _ we were up here, and the tense air around us right now, it would almost be romantic.

Maybe once this is all over with, I’ll bring  Natsuki up here with me. Maybe on top of my house. Then we can just enjoy a sunset together. Maybe bring a  few volumes of Parfait Girls up with us and enjoy one another’s company.

I just really hope I was right about there being life after this mess. I’m starting to really enjoy the Literature Club’s company. Natsuki especially. I’m not much good at reading people, but I’m starting to think there might be a connection between us deeper than just club friends. Something about how she and I just naturally gravitate towards one another, and what she said when we got a bit too playful making those cupcakes… Man, I’d love to have another one of her cupcakes. There’s another reason to keep the both of us alive.

Right as I finally get roof hopping down to a science, Yuri stops us.

“We’ve made it.” She says. “Now it’s simply a matter of getting down from here.”

Thankfully, there’s an openable skylight on the roof for us to enter through. At least _something_ was simple and straightforward today. What’s better, the skylight lets us land on top of a display with a flat top. None of us have to risk dropping a full story to get to the floor.

While I’m lowering myself down, I’m already dreaming of how hard we’re going to feast on the contents of this konbini. Gyudon cheesesteaks, sushi, hot dogs galore!

But then I see about 200 people had that same idea last night. The front windows have been shattered, and there’s barely anything left inside but shrapnel and sauce packets. The other four drop down one by one, and I see the disappointment grow in each one’s face as they see how thoroughly the place has been ransacked.

“Well, at least it’s still a safe place to sit down and eat.” Sayori says.

“Though… There’s far less to eat here than I was anticipating.” Yuri says. “I’m so sorry. It was so stupid of me to think there would be anything-”

Sayori pulls Yuri into a quick hug. “It’s okay. You were just trying to help. Besides, it’s not like we don’t have our own food!”

Sayori’s always had a contagious smile. Even Monika seems a little less angry after seeing that.

“Okay everyone.” Monika says. “Let’s throw together some lunch, plan our next move, and then we can get back to-”

A thunderclap shakes the floor of the konbini, and a heavy rain isn’t far behind. Monika flips through her phone, and then growls in frustration at what she sees. “Nevermind. We’re staying the night. Let’s get something between these windows and us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one took a bit longer to publish than the others. I've got a handful of beta readers on board now, and I wanted them to look this all over before it got published.


	4. Family

 It’s no honeymoon cabana, but after we barricade the shattered windows in the front of the konbini, it provides far more comfort than any of us would have expected.

It poured through the night, but once we had the skylight closed, the konbini kept us nice and dry. The power grid’s still holding, so we had access to a microwave and a space heater. The microwave was a real MVP. I don’t think I could have eaten that weird stew of ramen noodles, ponzu, ketchup and spam cold. But after three separate close brushes with death on Misuzu Street, I’m glad to eat anything warm and vaguely nourishing.

After eating a stew like that, I can see why Natsuki wanted to go and do some scavenging. But I also get why Monika practically grabbed her by the collar and told her no. It  _ was _ raining hard enough to float Noah’s Arc out there. And we don’t have any changes of clothing her size, let alone anything to keep the rain off.

Sayori checked everyone over for injuries. That is, after wolfing down two helpings of weirdo stew. I wasn’t until I poked her forehead and pointed to the stain on my pants leg that she remembered what needed to be done.

Once Yuri had all of her wounds looked over, the very first thing she did was pull that atomizer out of her kit and start filling the konbini with the scent of chamomile. I didn’t even realize how tense and afraid she looked until the chamomile started to relax her.

With her cuts cleaned, her belly filled and somewhere to relax, even Monika started to come down from her sour mood. Before we knew it we were all chatting away, and even complimenting each other on the teamwork we managed back at Misuzu Street.

Once we’d talked away what little energy we had left, we made beds for ourselves out of the contents of the store’s magazine rack and went to sleep. Maybe we should have set shifts to keep watch, but hey. Hindsight is 20/20.

_ Man _ I wish this morning was as pleasant as last night.

I sit up from my bed of Home-Improvement Illustrated and almost scream from the cramping pain that shoots up my leg.

“Hooooly shit!” I groan, marveling at how that exclamation started life as a yawn.

“What’s wr-” Yuri starts. Given the way she winced and braced her back, I’m guessing she’s figured out what’s wrong first hand.

Looks like everybody is waking up in pain. Natsuki is struggling to even sit up.

Sayori grimaces, walks her own pain off and kneels at Natsuki’s side.

“What hurts?” Sayori asks, offering a hand for Natsuki to pull herself up by.

Natsuki’s response comes out hoarse and breathy. “God…  _ everything _ .”

Monika looks up from her phone as she hears this exchange. “Is it really that bad?”

“ _ Yes. It is. _ ” Natsuki snaps back.

With a lingering, hurt look. Monika just looks back at her phone. I see her lips move, but I don’t catch what she said.

“So, uh… In other news...” Monika begins. “They figured out that the virus spreads from contact between zombie puke and open wounds, and despite a rash of infections in Los Angeles, the army air drops are due to start tomorrow.”

The news seems to lift everyone’s spirits. Even the information about how the virus spreads. At least now we know exactly what to avoid.

“Hold on a second. How did you find that out?” I ask.

“You guys didn’t figure it out? Power’s still on, and so is the konbini’s wifi router.” Monika says.

We’ve had wifi the whole night!? Everyone who has their phone on them immediately pulls it out. Myself included.

“If the wifi still works…” Yuri says, even more hope shining in her eyes than before. ”Then the cell phone towers are likely to still be functioning as well.”

We all seem to have the same thought at once. That thought being “I have to call my parents.”

I pull out my own phone, only to be greeted with a blank screen and a dead battery. Damn it all!

Maybe Natsuki will let me borrow her phone. I make my approach, but then I remember that there’s no way my folks are taking a call from a number they don’t recognize. They’ve always been weirdly stubborn about that. I think they got scammed out of a lot of money once.

Natsuki looks up from her phone when she sees me standing there. “Hm? What’s up?”

“I was going to ask if I could borrow that, but never mind.” I say.

“You were going to call your  _ parents _ , weren’t you?” Natsuki says, the resentment in her words unmistakable. Though I can tell the resentment isn’t really pointed at me.

“They’re not going to pick up from a number they don’t recognize.” I say.

“Not even for zombies?” Natsuki asks, as amused as she is incredulous.

“Of all the hills to die on, that’s the one they picked.” I say with a shrug.

Natsuki sighs and doesn’t say anything else. Neither do I. I’m about to say something just to fill the air, but then I notice Natsuki watching the other three talking on the phone.

“You alright?” I ask.

Natsuki sighs again. “It must be real nice, having someone to call…”

“I mean, technically you could-”

“Someone  _ worth _ calling.” Natsuki says, amending her previous statement.

“Yeah... fair enough.” I say, going quiet once again.

Monika, Sayori and Yuri end their conversations a few minutes after.

“Hey, Natsuki. Aren’t you going to call anybody?” Sayori asks, watching Natsuki tap away at her phone.  Here we go again...

Natsuki rolls her eyes. “Not my dad. That’s for sure. The drunk old prick can  _ rot _ .”

Yuri and Sayori  exchange  confused looks. Monika gives  them a solemn, knowing nod.

“So… with that out of the way...” Monika glances one more time at Natsuki. It’s almost looks like she’s trying to make sure she’s okay. “I think I figured out where to go next.”

Monika beckons for us all to gather around her phone. On the screen is a road map of the area between us and Mt. Amagoi.

“We’re here, and there’s a metro line just a block away from us.” Monika says, gesturing along the line with a finger. “Once we get there, that’s an elevated, unobstructed path west that’ll get us halfway there. I think we could make it in a day if we push ourselves."

Push ourselves, huh? I try and make my groan as quiet as possible. I can tell Yuri and Sayori aren’t thrilled by the idea either. But Natsuki? Natsuki’s more than ready to voice her thoughts.

“Oh,  _ suuuure _ .” Natsuki says. “Just let me draw from my bottomless reserves of stamina. Exhaustion? Muscle tears? What on earth are  _ those _ ?”

Monika gives everyone an incredulous look. “Am I really the only one who was taking care of themselves before all this? Just because we’re a little sore doesn’t make us need to move any less.”

Right as Natsuki is about to say something back, Monika makes for the front door and holds it open for us. “C’mon, you wimps! We’re burning daylight!”

Natsuki’s gritting her teeth at this point. I’m scared she might actually punch Monika in the back of the head.

“Just say it to me, Natsuki. Get it off your chest.” I whisper.

“I... I’m…” Natsuki growls in frustration. “I’m fucking  _ speechless _ .”

“Yeah, I hear ya.” I say. “One thing after another with her.”

Once everyone’s got their gear back together, we head out the front door. We’re greeted by the morning sun, empty streets, and a cluster of about twenty soaked, thoroughly rained on zombies. I think I see a rail bridge behind them, but they’re completely blocking the way to it. At least they haven’t noticed us yet.

“Yeah, we’re not sneaking past that, are we?” I remark, keeping my voice low.

“It shouldn’t be a difficult fight, however. Not compared to yesterday.” Yuri says.

“Just don’t shoot all at once this time, please.” Sayori adds, one hand already poised to plug her ears.

“Let’s just get this over with quick.” Natsuki says. “This gun hurts my wrist almost as much as it hurts their faces.”

I raise my  1911 at the cluster, keeping the sights on the  nearest zombie’s head. “Ready when you are.”

“What, were you waiting for an order or something?” Monika says. “Ugh. Just shoot em’.”

I shoot first, and the  bullet lands right where I aimed it. The others follow suit in their own time, but what surprises me is the booming report from Sayori’s shotgun. Wait. Did she aim at the lamp post?

The second shot confirms it. As the Lamp post leans precariously to the left, I get an idea of what she was trying to do. There were more runners in that cluster than I was hoping there would be. There’s no way we’ll be able to drop them all before they get too close.

Monika, Natsuki and I manage to take another five of the runners out before they’re in melee range. And of course, Yuri’s katana comes out with the deadly grace we’ve come to expect.

She’s good, but she’s not seven-versus-one good. But we can’t exactly shoot into the cluster either. We can’t afford a gunshot wound right now. Especially not on our best fighter.

Natsuki and I glance at each other. Natsuki looks in Yuri’s direction. I look at the cluster closing in on us.

I train my sights on the rest of the cluster. Natsuki pulls out her Lobo and makes for the runners crowding Yuri. Neither of us said a word, but we both know what to do. Natsuki’s going to cover Yuri, and I’m going to cover her.

Natsuki’s ragged warcry cuts through the gunfire and gibbering of the infected. A few rounds off my 1911 cut through the skulls of the zombies that chase her. For a moment, I’m thankful that I chose a handgun back in Yuri’s arsenal. My wrists are certainly feeling the recoil, but compared to what Monika’s Garand and Sayori’s double barrel must be putting out? It almost makes me feel like I’m slacking.

A runner barrels into me from the right. I guess I was slacking on situational awareness too.

The initial blow knocks my pistol from my hands. The second blow leaves me seeing stars. The third blow is interrupted by one of my own. It was pure luck, but it did buy me a few inches of space from the runner. I throw a hand out to grab him by the throat and hold him as far from me as I can.

He’s having a way harder time hitting my face now, so he just focuses on brutalizing my arm instead. His teeth can’t reach. His fists and nails can. Punch after punch rocks my upper arm. I have never been so excruciatingly aware of my shoulder joint’s limits.

My off hand scrambles to retrieve the dagger I’d picked out in Yuri’s arsenal. My hand finds the grip, my arm pulls it free, and I plunge the dagger into the runner’s chest.

He’s bleeding mightily, but zombies never seem to take the hint that you killed them unless you go for the head. So I know what to do.

I manage to gouge my own forearm during the transition though.

I cry out in pain and can’t even follow through with the stab. I feel the runner’s throat doing something strange under my hand, but I’m wincing too hard to see what it is. He starts to make a retching noise.

Oh  _ shit. _

I pull my arm away. My eyes open just in time to watch a bullet tear through the runner’s right temple.

Natsuki gives me the best thumbs up she can while holding her revolver.  


This is my chance! I scramble to collect my own pistol from the floor, only to find that the cluster of soggy zombies is no more.

A few other zombies are approaching the commotion, but the runners are easy enough to pick off, and the shamblers won’t arrive until lunchtime.

And  god DAMN am I feeling every single blow. Even the ones from yesterday. Not even I know how I haven’t already passed out.  Especially considering the blood loss.

Sayori sees the blood dripping from my forearm and scrambles to patch the tear I’ve made in myself. The disinfectant stings hard enough to bring tears to my eyes, but Sayori’s gentle touch as she wraps a bandage is enough to make me forget the pain. I give her the best smile I can manage through the exhaustion and pain. Just so she knows that I appreciate it.

I can’t even cheer or talk about how we totally whooped their asses right now. All I can do is sigh. The kind of exasperated sigh you let out when you find out that you actually get off work three hours later than you expected. None of us even bother to say. “Let’s keep moving.” We just do. Everyone wants to get out of the streets as quickly as possible.

Too bad “As quickly as possible” still feels like an eternal slog. All we can do is put one weary foot in front of the other. The sun beats down on the waterlogged, puddle-ridden streets and onto our miserable faces.  


One foot in front of the other...

Our sweat can’t even do its job, thanks to the humidity…

One foot in front of the other…

The streets are really starting to smell. The spilled contents of neglected garbage cans are marinating in rainwater; being slow baked by the sun. Not to mention the motionless body in that alleyway. I think that one’s been there a while.

One foot in front of the other...

 It feels like I’m breathing in swamp ass and breathing out chunks of my very soul.

One foot in front of the other…

When we reach the rail bridge, we quickly realize that there’s no way to access the tracks from here. The nearest station is  _ another _ block away. You know the drill...

One foot in front of the other…

One foot in front of the other…

One foot in front of the other…

Natsuki collapses onto the bench of a bus stop. Sayori is kind enough to give her some water from the Calpico bottle she’d been carrying her water in. Leaning her head back, Natsuki just lets the lukewarm sink water fall into her mouth.

Once she’s recovered, we get moving again. Though, with our pace, “moving” almost sounds like too generous of a term for it.

One foot in front of the other…

With how far my back is hunching, it almost feels more appropriate to start crawling.  I glance over to see how Natsuki’s holding up. If she collapsed once, I’m afraid she might collapse again.

Natsuki doesn’t even have her eyes open anymore. She’s just stumbling forward without looking at what’s ahead. To be fair, I’m pretty convinced this footslog will never end too. It’s probably a matter of time before I’m sleepwalking as well.

But for now, I can see that Natsuki’s about to trip over a bike parking rack.

“Natsuki.” I put my arm in front of her.

“Mmngh?” Natsuki groans. She looks at my arm, and then the bike rack she was standing over. I’m not sure what Natsuki just murmured, but it sounded halfway like “Oh shit. Thanks.”

One foot in front of the other…

One foot in front of the other…

“Hey… There it is!” Monika says. Just having the station in sight is enough for me to stand up a little straighter. We’re almost there! And they have benches in there! And shade! And vending machines!

Onefootinfrontoftheother onefootinfrontoftheother onefootinfrontoftheother!

My calf muscles feel like they’re going to explode, but I ignore them as I rush up the motionless escalator and into the station.

They have benches to crash on, and the vending machines are still intact, but the roof is all glass. You know how a car gets hot when sunlight goes through the windows into the cabin? Imagine that, but in a room the size of a small retail outlet.

Nevertheless, our cramping muscles need somewhere safe to give out on us. So we all collapse onto the bench nearest to us.  Natsuki and I collapse right next to each other, with Natsuki leaning on top of me. The fact that she didn’t immediately pull herself off and tell me not to get the wrong idea is just one indicator of how wiped she must be. If anyone wants to make a cute remark about it, I probably won’t even hear them over the sound of my heart and lungs coming down from overdrive.

I watch Natsuki pull herself off of me  a minute later and approach a vending machine. By some miracle, the vending machines in this station are completely intact, but the lights aren’t on.

“Anyone got any spare change?” Natsuki asks.

“Considering the lights are off, I’m  _ pretty sure _ they’re not working.” Monika flicks a dollar coin off her thumb towards Natsuki. “But fine. Whatever.”

Natsuki catches the coin with a speed and ease that I never would have expected. Then she tries to put it through the machine’s coin slot. Just as Monika predicted, it won’t go in. The vending machines are dead as a doornail.

Natsuki sends her Lobo right through the glass.

“WHAT THE F-” Monika jumps to her feet. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!?”

“Surviving.” Natsuki says, stuffing as many bags of snacks and candy bars into her pockets and pack as possible. “Do you really think I’m just going to let a big case of unclaimed food go unopened?”

“All of these machines were perfectly intact before you did that. I’m not going to let this club turn into a band of looters.” Monika says.

Natsuki rolls her eyes. “That kind of thinking is for people who  _ don’t _ have a bunch of slobbering dead people trying to kill them every five minutes. Do you want to eat or not?”

Monika tries to respond, but I can see that she's too annoyed and tired to form a sentence. So she just pinches the bridge of her nose. “Ugh, whatever. We all caught our breath? Let’s get miles behind us.”

The rest of us pull ourselves off the benches.  I’m no longer certain if all the sweat on me is my own, but again, we’re both too tired to give a crap. We head through the doorways to the platforms, and soon figure out which set of tracks we need to follow.

“This is the one, guys!” Monika says, crouching down to hop off the platform. Right as she’s ready to jump, an eastbound train screams past the platform; 2 inches from Monika’s nose. Judging by the horn not being blown, the breakneck speed it was travelling at, and the lazy arms hanging out the windows, that was a train full of infected passengers. Probably the driver too.

I watch the train as it speeds off. A couple hundred feet past us, the train gets thrown into a siding and plows right through the stopblock at highway speeds. As each car in the train careens into the nearby suburbia like 20-ton buckshot pellets, I can’t decide if the sight or the sound is the greater spectacle.

The five of us stare at the literal trainwreck unfolding before us. When the dust settles, and the last metro car slams into the last storefront, Sayori turns her attention to Monika.

“Are you okay?” Is all she asks.

“Well, if I wasn’t alert before I sure as shit am now.” Monika replies. “Okay everyone... Don’t walk directly on the tracks if you can help it.”

The walk down the railroad tracks isn’t much different from the walk to the station, but at least now there’s a sense that we’re starting to cover some ground. Doesn’t stink anywhere near as much either. The elevated tracks put us about two stories above the ground. So we’re getting a view about on par with the rooftop hopping we did last night, but without having to watch our step so much. To the west, I can make out a ridge of mountains on the horizon. Is that where we’re headed? Then I remember that we’re covering that distance on foot...

I’d best distract myself.

“Hey, MC?” Natsuki says, quiet enough that only I would hear her. Alright, I guess Natsuki’s looking for a distraction too.

“Yeah? What’s up?” I say, matching her volume.

To my surprise, Natsuki rests her head against my arm. “Thanks for putting up with me…”

I stop in my tracks. It’s a little difficult to believe that Natsuki of all people is being affectionate. She must really trust me. I’d better not let her down...

“What do you mean, ‘put up with you?’” I ask.

“I know I can be very…” Natsuki huffs. “Let’s be honest here. I can be a real bitch sometimes. But you? You stick through it. You still try and be there for me. Even at my nastiest.”

Do I? She’s been stand-offish since we met, sure. But never enough to make me consider not spending time with her.

“I don’t deserve you, but you keep on coming back for some reason. So uh... “ Natsuki gently presses herself against my arm. “Thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome, but I think you might be overstating how unpleasant you are.” I say.

Natsuki goes quiet for a moment, before asking “You’re... not just saying that, are you?”

“Not at all.” I say.  


“Even after the whole ‘we could just shoot him’ thing?” Natsuki asks.

“Yeah.” I say, with a firm nod. “You didn’t think that one all the way through is all.”

I feel Natsuki nod against my arm. “Yeah, I was thinking too much about myself. Like I  _ always _ do...”

“Remember how you told Yuri to stop dumping on herself the other night?” I ask.

Natsuki looks up at me, still resting against my arm. “Yeah? What about it?”

“What do you think I’m about to do?” I ask. “What would you do if someone you liked a whole lot was beating themselves up too much?”

Natsuki goes quiet. I think she gets what I’m saying.

“Quit dumping on yourself, dummy.” I say, with a grin and a gentle nudge.

“But… But I’ve been such a…” Natsuki can’t finish her thought.

I gently scratch her head. “There’s a difference between healthy self-criticism and just beating yourself up.”

“I... guess so.” Natsuki says. “But where’s the line?”

“Y’know, I never really thought about that.” I say.

That was a really good question. What makes one helpful and the other harmful? There’s got to be a comparison you can make…

I think I’ve got it.

“Think of yourself like a poem for a moment.” I say.

That gets a laugh out of Natsuki. “Pff, what is this? A Beatles song?”

“No no, like…” C’mon, MC. You know where you’re going with this. “Try approaching self criticism the way you’d approach critiquing a poem.”

“Alright, I  _ think _ I see what you’re getting at.” Natsuki says, staring off at the distant mountains. “Some people are trying to help you, some people are just being pricks who want to tear you down.”

“Yeah, you got it! And you tend to tune out the pricks, right?” I say.

Natsuki nods, standing up straight once more. “Totally! I’m probably ten times better at writing than them anyway.”

Yup. She’s getting it. “So why are you being a prick to yourself?”

“Because…” Natsuki trails off. “Because I…”

Natsuki sighs. “I guess you have a point.”

“And so do you.” I say. “Even though you were too harsh on yourself about it.”

“About what?” Natsuki asks.

“About being a bit too abrasive.” I say. “Now, how are you going to revise that verse of the poem?”

Natsuki tries to think of an answer, but I can see she’s drawing a blank.

“It’d be a lot easier to do if  _ someone _ didn’t keep setting me off.” Natsuki says, casting a glare down the tracks. It falls squarely on Monika.

“Yeah, that does complicate things, doesn’t it?” I say.

“Seriously.” Natsuki says. “It’s like she’s  _ trying _ to set us off! Does she get some kind of sick kick out of it?”

Something tells me I should play devil’s advocate. “I mean, leading us is stressful and all, but…”

“It’s not just that either! Remember those obnoxious little snipes at us the other night?” Natsuki says.

I nod, just letting Natsuki vent it all. “Oh yeah. Those were pretty uncalled for.”  


“Ugh. I hate people like that. What’s so fun about getting people all-”

“Oh, COME ON, you two!” Monika shouts, about 100 feet ahead of us. “If you haven’t noticed, we’re standing on live railroad tracks! Have your tender little moment later!”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen poorer timing than that.

We double time it to get back to the other three. At least they waited for us before we started walking again.  I can  _ feel _ the fury radiating off of Natsuki. She’s about five seconds away from putting her Lobo through Monika’s skull, isn’t she?

“Alright. Deep breaths, Natsuki.” I say. She nods her agreement.

Natsuki takes a deep breath in, aaaaaaaaaand-

“ _ Finally _ . What was so important that you decided to hold us all up?” Monika asks.

Natsuki answers with her teeth clenched. “It’s none of your  _ goddamn business _ , Monika.”

“Oh, is it?” Monika says. “What  _ is  _ my business is that we’re standing around burning daylight because the two of  _ you _ wanted to shoot the shit!”

“It’s  _ done _ . We’re moving. Your little marathon can continue.” Natsuki says, rolling her eyes.

“Don’t give me that attitude!” Monika snaps back.

“Don’t talk to  _ me _ like I’m some disobedient fucking  _ child _ !” Natsuki shouts.

“Wow!” Monika shouts in mock-surprise. “I’ve never HEARD a better description of you!”

Natsuki would be beating the crap out of Monika right now if I hadn’t caught her. Even then, I have to brace my foot against one of the rails to keep her back.

“Thi… This seems quite counterproductive!” Yuri says, visibly battling back her anxiety to do so.

Monika makes a ‘See? She gets it!’ gesture towards Yuri. “Thank you, Yuri! We’d be two stations ahead by now if it weren’t for this little performance!”

“That’s all you fucking care about, isn’t it!?” Natsuki  shouts, trying to bludgeon Monika with words instead of her fists . “The only thing that matters to you is your precious little  _ death march _ _! _ ”

“Well if you’d prefer to sit here and wait for the zombies to get you, be my guest.” Monika says. “I’m sure we’d all like a break from your bitching!”

“Classic fucking hypocrisy!” Natsuki shouts, before moving into a mocking falsetto.  “Myeeeeeh! Let’s  _ gooooo _ you big stupid whiny babies! But don’t even  _ think _ about stopping to feed yourselves. You’d better just leave that whole fucking box of food untouched and starve because opening it would hurt my  _ feeeeeeeliiiiiiiiiiiings! _ ”

“Stop it! STOP IT!” Sayori shouts, on the verge of tears. “We’re supposed to be friends!”

“Friends don’t order friends to  _ FUCKING STARVE!” _ Natsuki’s words echo as she stares us all down, trembling with unbridled rage.

The volume, the  _ fury _ behind that last remark is enough to silence everyone else. After a palpable pause, Monika just turns her back and keeps on walking. As if to silently tell us all to move on from this fight.

My legs can walk away from what just happened, but my mind can’t. The entire, vindictive exchange keeps replaying in my head. Each time, my mind’s ear adds just one extra teaspoon of venom to each word.

I look over at Natsuki, just to see if she’s okay. She’s still got her teeth clenched, and now I can see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. Tears that Natsuki is fighting back with the same ferocity she fought Monika with.

It almost feels like a much more serious version of the day we pulled Natsuki’s manga down from the top classroom shelf. But this time, there’s not a whole lot I can do for her. 

I’ve got a feeling that Natsuki’s going to want some catharsis. Maybe she’ll want to punch something, maybe she just needs a good cry, but it’s clear that she can’t do any such thing while we’re still walking as a group.

All I can do, for now, is walk closely by her side. Just as a reminder that I’m still here with her; still at her side. Still  _ on _ her side. The way she aggressively takes my hand says everything that needs saying. I don’t think anyone else noticed, but I don’t think Natsuki cares whether they did or not.

There’s precious little else to warm the rest of the journey, though. I’m not even sure how much time passed before another train station came into view. We’re all eager for something to break the monotony, so when Monika points to the station, we all follow her in without a second thought. It’ll be nice to be in the shade for a while, if nothing else.

I think my body’s getting used to the constant footslogging, because by the time we reach the station, I don’t feel the need to pass out on the nearest bench anymore. I’m even feeling well enough to poke around the place.

There’s not much to report, in all honesty. It’s an empty train station. I toyed with the idea of trying to get coins out of the ticket machine, but what the hell am I going to do with those? Does anyone still accept legal tender?

Why not take a look around the cafe? I find that they’ve still got a few curry donuts behind the counter. Score! I eat one, then another. Then my conscience finally manages to overpower my appetite. The others would like a little pick-me-up too, right?

I wave everyone over to the cafe. Monika, Sayori and Yuri come over to see what I’m so excited about. When I show them the four remaining curry donuts, their eyes immediately light up. There’s something nice about seeing everyone’s mood lightening as they scarf down this little culinary reprieve. Today has sucked some serious ass, so it’s nice to see everyone smile for once.

“So, who gets dibs on the last one?” Monika asks. The four of us look at each other to see who’ll lay the claim. Of course, Sayori is the first one to speak up.

“Shouldn’t we save it for Natsuki?” She asks. And here I thought she was just going to chow down. I should have figured she’d be thinking about someone else.

“Where is she anyway?” I add.  She must have wanted some alone time. Still, I kick myself for not keeping better track of where she’d gone.

Her shout from the men’s bathroom answers our question for us. “Holy shit, look who we have here!”

Smelling danger, the four of us bolt to the bathroom to back her up. We squeeze through the door to find Natsuki with her revolver trained on a shambler. He’s locked eyes with Natsuki, but he’s yet to make a move.

“Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for a chance like this?” Natsuki says. Part of me wants to ask “Who the hell is that?”, but I don’t think Natsuki has noticed us yet.

“All those years, all those shouting matches, all those times you bitched at me for my hobbies, and all those nights going hungry because you were too busy moping to cook!” Natsuki continues.  In an instant, I know who this shambler used to be. I always wondered what the man looked like.

“Seriously. What kind of useless dad has the brass BALLS to criticize a daughter he can’t even consistently feed?”

Get em’, Natsuki! He deserves every word of your scorn!

“You always said I’d be dependant on you forever. Yeah? Well, guess what motherfucker! I’m surviving, and you’ve already died. Now all that’s left is to put you out of your misery!”

Natsuki puts a round through her father’s infected head. I watch as his blood hits the wall and his lifeless body hits the ground.

But I don’t see any satisfaction on Natsuki’s face. Reflected in the bathroom mirrors, I watch Natsuki’s face go from wondering where the vindication she thought she’d feel was, to horrific realisation at what she’d just done, to out and out tearful agony.

Her revolver clatters to the floor. Just a second later Natsuki falls to her knees. I can just about hear her choke out “Papa… I’m sorry, papa…”

I rush to Natsuki’s side and pull her into my arms. If she’d want comfort from anyone right now, it would be me, right?

This must be the worst day of Natsuki’s life. Waking up in all that pain, having her life threatened not even half an hour after waking up, the whole miserable journey here, and now she has to realize how much she loved her father five seconds after shooting him.

Sayori joins  us on the floor, pulling her into a hug from the side. Natsuki keeps on sobbing, but she  begins to ease into our embrace.

Monika’s the next one to speak. “Oh my god… Natsuki, I’m so sorry. I didn’t-”

“Fuck off…” Natsuki chokes out.

Monika stops herself from trying to push the issue and sighs. “Alright, I’ll back off. You’re absolutely right to be angry with me, Natsuki.”

Natsuki turns her reddened eyes towards Monika; in disbelief at what she’d just heard.

“I knew your dad was strict, but I didn’t realize it was....” Monika continues.

“Y-You saw what just…” Natsuki tries to form a full thought.

“We all did.” Yuri answers.

“God dammit all…” Is Natsuki’s only response.  I just hug her tighter.

I hesitate a moment, but find it in me to ask. “Was he the last family member you had?”

Natsuki nods. “I thought I was used to going it alone. Th’fuck did  _ I _ know about being alone before today?”

“I don’t know, but you’re still not alone.” Sayori whispers, right by Natsuki’s ear. “We’re all right here.”

That sets Natsuki’s tears off all over again.

Monika gets on one knee and offers Natsuki a hand up. “Come on. Let’s go lay him to rest.”

We pull a promotional banner down from this station’s atrium and lay Natsuki’s father atop it. Then the four of us grab a corner and carry his remains with us. All but Natsuki. She’s already carrying the weight of shooting him, after all. And someone needs their hands free to respond to any threats.

And so we continue however many miles it takes. None of us uttering even a single word of complaint or grunt of exertion until the railroad tracks return to ground level.

“Right there.” Natsuki points to a bush by the side of the railroad tracks. Once we’ve laid his body down, Natsuki pulls out her Lobo and begins to dig her father a grave. Right in the green between the rails and the fence that separates them from the road. Even then, she doesn’t dig alone. Monika and I occasionally soften the ground for her using our  knives . Sayori takes over digging for her once in a while. Yuri stands guard over us all; quickly felling any infected that make an approach.

None of us care to track the time, but right as the sun begins to fall behind the mountains to our west, Monika holds up a hand.  


“There. That should be about six feet.” She says.

With a silent nod, Natsuki sits by her father’s side.

“Hey there dad…” She begins. “Never thought it’d end like this, huh?”

She hesitates a moment before carrying on. “I’m… sorry for being such a difficult daughter. I always thought you were just a mopey old… y’know. But now? Now I realize just how much loss fuckin’  _ hurts _ … Is this what you felt when we lost mom?”

I see the beginnings of tears in Monika’s eyes. I feel them trying to break through too.

“If this is how you were feeling, then… You really  _ were _ just doing the best you could with what you had, weren’t you?”

Sayori’s doing a good job holding herself together, all things considered.

“I wish I could do better for you, especially since this is the end and all. But… Shit.” Natsuki takes a moment to pull herself back together.  All I can do is pat her back and tell her to take her time.

Natsuki puts her forehead against what’s left of her father’s. “When this is all over, I’ll come back for you. Okay? See about getting you a real grave.”

With that, Natsuki puts a hand to the side of her head and works one of her ribbons out of her hair. Then she closes her father’s hand over it. “Here. You always liked these. So… you can remember me by it, okay?”

Sayori speaks up. “But Natsuki, now your hair is...”

“I’ve lost a lot today. At this point I don’t really care about losing symmetry too.” Natsuki replies, pulling her head back up.

For a while, Natsuki sits in silence; just trying to make the last look she would ever get at her father last as long as possible. None of us say a word until she speaks again to tell us that she’s ready.

At her signal, the four of us take the banner we’d carried her father on, wrap it over his body as best we can, and gently lower him into his impromptu grave. As we all pitch in to refill the grave, I find myself wondering how many other infected wound up getting this treatment. How many people wanted to do this for their dead, but couldn’t find a place? Or just didn’t have time? Or themselves turned before they could?

And just where the hell did this outbreak come from anyway? I heard absolutely nothing about it until that first day in class. How did it spread so quickly, so unnoticed? I’d just assume this was all a nightmare, but it’s lasted far too long. The pain has been far too real. And the exchanges I’ve had with the rest of the literature club have been far too vivid.

But as twisted as it might be to say, there are some parts of this that I really do hope are for real. Even if it’s for the sake of survival, I’ve never felt a sense of shared purpose as strong as I do now. Nor have I felt a bond quite as strong as  what I’m starting to feel with Natsuki. That much, I truly hope is for real.  


Once the dirt has been packed down, Monika addresses us all again. “Okay everyone. Let’s shelter at the next station. It’s as far as we’ll get before nightfall.”

Natsuki is the last of us to leave the grave site, and even as she walks away, she keeps glancing at where her father had been laid to rest.

Once we’ve all returned to our full pace, Monika hands Natsuki that curry donut we’d saved for her.

“Sorry I’ve been pushing you so hard.” She says.

“It’s the apocalypse and you’ve got to keep us moving.” Natsuki takes a bite out of the donut. “I get that.”

“Even then, that’s no reason to insult you guys like I have been.” Monika says, addressing all of us now. “If I keep thinking like that, it’s going to leak into my decisions. And  _ that _ could lead to… Well, something I’d never want to happen.”

“Leading is hard, Monika.” Sayori says. “Just acknowledging that you can do better tells me that you’re going to do a great job.”

“Ahaha… that really does mean a lot. Thank you, Sayori.” Monika says, looking out over the distant mountainscape. “We really are in this for the long haul, aren’t we? Let’s unload all our  unspoken words here. Lighten our packs for the road ahead.”

There are some quiet nods of agreement, but nobody volunteers to start.  


Until Sayori speaks up. “MC? Natsuki? The two of you have been spending a whole lot of time together. Is there something you’ve been meaning to say?”

Natsuki and I look at one another. I can feel my face growing hotter, and I struggle to find something to say, but Natsuki just groans. In fact, it was more of an exhausted  _ wheeze _ than it was a displeased groan.

“Now?  _ Really? _ ” Natsuki says, turning her weary, unamused eyes towards Sayori.

Sayori doesn’t say anything in response, but I can tell by her face that she’s realized her mistake.

“Yeah, you’ve been through way too much today, Natsuki.” I say. Though I  _ do _ make a note of how Natsuki didn’t say “no” to the implied question.

Come to think of it,  _ I’m _ not even sure of how I feel about Natsuki. I certainly like her, and I do want to spend as much time with her as I can, but is it really what Sayori was trying to imply?

“What’s it to you, anyway?” Natsuki adds.

“Well I mean…” Sayori tries to organize her thoughts. It’s like her eyes are trying to tiptoe through this social minefield. “I’m just scared that the two of you won’t get a chance to…”

Yuri chimes in. “I see what Sayori means. The two of you  _ have _ spent the majority of your time together; ever since MC joined the club.”

Natsuki turns her tired eyes to the rest of the group. “What do you want from me? Some big sappy love confession?”

“Guys, give her some space.” Monika says, stepping between the two of them and Natsuki. “She’s dealt with a lot already. Now’s not the time to press her about anything else.”

“Can’t believe I’m saying this, but…” Natsuki sighs. “Thank you, Monika.”

I watch Monika wince at Natsuki’s phrasing.  


I for one don’t really need a verbal confession from Natsuki. She already let me know how she felt with that last poem she shared with me.

“So…” Monika begins. I can see Natsuki’s last remark still stings “Anything else need saying?”

“Thanks for putting up with me, guys…” Natsuki says, loud enough for everyone to hear, but only just.

“What do you mean?” Sayori asks, as if Natsuki had said something far nastier about herself.

“I can be such a…” Natsuki glances over at me and pauses. She already knows what I’d say. Revise, don’t criticize.

“I’m sorry for being so… so  _ nasty _ to you all. I...” Natsuki pauses once more. I think she just realized something about herself. “I’m just so used to everyone being an enemy, that I just go straight to hostility.”

“ _ Everyone? _ ” Yuri says. Something about her tone tells me that she can relate.

Natsuki nods. “Always feels like everyone’s out to laugh at me. Or judge me. Or  _ use _ me…”

Sayori matches Natsuki’s stride and starts to gently rub her shoulder. “It’s okay. We won’t do that to you.”

“And how do I know that?” Natsuki asks, not visibly comforted by Sayori’s gesture.

“To put it in rather, well... cynical terms, harming you would be detrimental to our own survival. Would it not?” Yuri says.

“Shit… Guess that’ll have to do.” Natsuki says.

“Anyone else need to get something off their chest?” Monika asks.

“I’m fine...” Sayori says, sneaking a few glances at Natsuki  and I.

“I ask only that everyone direct their anger at its actual source.” Yuri says.

“Right… Sorry again about that.” Monika says.

I respond with a noncommittal shrug.

“Then that’s everyone.” Monika says. “If any new ones pop up, talk it out as soon as you can. Because from here on out, we’re a  _ team _ .”

Everyone seems pretty pleased with that idea. Even Natsuki manages to crack a faint smile, drained as she is.

And so the four of us walk on until we reach the next station. All the while, the rest of the literature club starts to talk like a group of friends again. Natsuki remains fairly quiet, but she’s holding her head just a little bit higher now.

I also keep quiet, since I keep on thinking about Monika’s declaration. A team, huh? We already saw little shades of that before now. When we rescued Sayori from her own paralysis, I felt it. There was this brief spark of unity. This sense that we were all parts of one well-oiled machine.

Now that I have a moment to contemplate it, I realize just how amazing that felt. After spending so much time on my own, I didn’t even realize that this feeling existed. Is this what keeps athletes playing their chosen sport?

I may have something truly special with  Natsuki , but now I truly appreciate what the rest of us have between each other. Is there a word for it? “Friends” is one thing, but I have a feeling that it’s going to grow deeper than that. ”Squad” doesn’t really feel right either. None of us are shouting about echo deltas at four-niner-niner clicks northeast.

Or maybe, it doesn’t need a name. The important thing is that we’re going to make it through this. Together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took longer to finish than I'd like. The Natsuki version on it's own took a month because A. It had to be so significantly different from every other version, and B. because I didn't think to outline the changes I'd make before I tried to write them. But at the end of the day, I'm really happy with how it turned out.
> 
> On the plus side, the trailer for the mod version of this fanfic is now available for viewing on another team member, AstraNova's channel!
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO_4eThQyec


End file.
